Once again, some of the worst examples are in our county. Reporters Anthony Cormier and Matthew Doig uncovered that in four departments here -- Biscayne Park, Sweetwater, Opa-locka, and Hialeah Gardens -- a whopping 20 ercent of officers had at least one instance of potentially career-ending misconduct evaluated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. That's about five times the statewide average and four times that of the Miami-Dade Police Department.

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But just consider that data for a second. In those four departments, one out of five officers was found culpable of a fireable offense.

Sweetwater -- formerly a dwarf's paradise that just always creeped us out -- is particularly one of the state's worst offenders when it comes to hiring problem officers. The Herald-Tribune discovered that at least 12 cops there had incidents of misconduct (including a sex offense, cocaine possession, and indecent exposure) at other departments. Many of those cops came from the Miami-Dade and Miami departments.

Unsurprisingly, these police departments populated by rejects are also the most troubled.

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Opa-locka is under investigation for a laundry list of allegations, including officers trading sex with prisoners in return for freedom. New Times has reported on myriad problems -- including missing drugs from the evidence room and an officer behind the wheel in a hit-and-run -- at the Biscayne Park Department. We uncovered then that Capt. Antonio Sanchez was hired after being canned from both the Sweetwater and Hialeah Gardens departments.

Let's hope this Herald-Tribune series will cause some changes in a system that currently allows problem cops to keep their badges. In the meantime, we're going to stay well under the speed limit in the shitheels of South Florida.